A Merger That Turns Tariffs Into Opportunity And Scale Into Customer Advantage, with ALL Circuits' Stephane Klajzyngier

Tariffs changed the rules, but they also opened a door. I sit down with Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO, to unpack how merging with DBG transformed a strong European EMS into a truly global partner with the footprint, capital strength, and operational discipline to win in a volatile market. From Mexico and Tunisia to China, Vietnam, India, and Bangladesh, we break down why diversified manufacturing options beat single-country bets and how customers are now optimizing for total landed cost, duty exposure, and ramp speed.

We get candid about integration: what it takes to align cultures and processes, how much “common DNA” you really need, and why being similar but not identical accelerates learning. The conversation drills into the realities of EMS scale—purchasing power for cutting-edge equipment, the cost of every new line, and why financial depth matters to OEMs who fear supplier failure more than unit price. Talent becomes a headline theme: attracting engineers, technicians, program managers, and quality leaders who can connect DFM, test, and compliance, while three design centers in France, Shenzhen, and Shanghai shape BOM strategy and component leverage long before production starts.

RFQs are flooding in for two clear reasons: mid-sized international OEMs want a partner big enough to move programs across continents but attentive enough to prioritize them, and Asia-based companies entering western markets need guidance on compliance, nearshoring trade-offs, and duty-optimized routing. We also dig into automation lessons from China, where robotics must outperform extremely low labor costs, pushing smarter ROI thresholds, standardized work, and relentless continuous improvement. Looking ahead, the plan is focused and pragmatic: modernize EMEA for lower cost per placement, expand in North America as awards land, and explore an additional Asian site to deepen resilience.

If you care about where to build, how to hedge tariff risk, and which levers truly move EMS cost and speed, this conversation delivers practical insight you can use. Subscribe, share with a colleague weighing footprint decisions, and leave a review to tell us what you want us to unpack next.

EMS@C-Level is hosted by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Global Electronics Association (https://www.electronics.org)

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Transcript

Setting The Stage

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 0:08

Hello from my house to yours. Welcome to EMS at Sea Level. I am joined by Stefan from All Circuits. Stefan, always good to chat to you, but especially this year. It's been a monumental year for All Circuits with the um with the uh acquisition or the merger with um DBG. Tell me a bit about how that's progressed through the year and how it's changed the way you operate from being a European business with a North American uh footprint to a global business.

Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO 0:44

Well, thank you for having me, Field. Uh it's been uh an important year for all circuits for sure. Uh we changed uh shareholders, as you already said. That actually happened mid-air, uh mid-2026, after a roughly a one-year process. Um, and I would like to to thank IE for having been a shareholder for about 10 years and uh good shareholders supporting us. Um it was probably a time for a new era for our circuits because we've been at the at the beginning of a of a significant uh momentum. Uh even if we uh essentially address the uh automotive market, we have uh very good traction in terms of um industrial uh customers and uh and demand from that large uh automotive and non-automotive customers to be able to follow them worldwide. Um we are a French company, obviously, uh, but we also have uh manufacturing presence in Tunisia and in Mexico. With DBG now, we are truly uh worldwide. So EMEA, North America, but DBG has um several locations in Asia, uh a couple of large locations, and just upon the third one in uh so two in the south in Huchou, Chenchen, one uh near uh Shanghai in Chaxi. But they also have manufacturing uh capabilities in Vietnam, in India, and uh also in Bangladesh. So we currently have now a pretty good setup, and we're able to serve our customers uh efficiently uh worldwide.

Tariffs Reshape EMS Strategy

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 2:33

Yeah, I think that's really important. When I look at the way the market's changed, and um you know the word tariff is always is is always coming up in multiple conversations and has played an important role in how people think about the ideal EMS model this year. Um having that depth in your footprint is is really important. Having countries like India, which is seen as being a really important player moving forward, uh, is important too. But it from their point of view, it's also important to have the depth and strength that you have in Europe. It's it it's it feels like a match that's well timed considering the market.

Surging RFQs And Reshoring Trends

Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO 3:14

Well, the um the tariffs uh that have been imposed uh on lots of countries have indeed uh shaken the market. We somehow have benefited um to uh to these changes because uh there's a lot of our OEM customers that are asking themselves questions, you know, to whom should I work with? Who can actually help me optimize my manufacturing factoring, um help pay uh uh the duties, uh not the maximum duties, uh, but some optimized duties. So we've been uh facing a very, very significant wave of RFQs um since let's say yeah, since the beginning of the year. Um we've never had so many uh uh quotes um to do, which is a good thing. It's not uh Western companies interested in Asia, it's actually more the other way around, and a lot of uh Asian players or international companies that had moved their manufacturing in Asia that are considering uh reshoring on the shoring. Um we for all circuits, but I would say even more for DBG technology, it comes at a very interesting time because we have answers. We have answers to that, we have answers to most of our customers' expectations. So um it's been um it's been very good for the as far as the momentum is concerned, and as you also pointed out, um 2025 should be a good year. Uh, we've had so far a good run, um which uh we can of course enjoy, and that gives confidence also for uh investing more and expanding in the years to come.

Integrating Footprints And Cultures

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 5:08

Yeah. Yeah. And it's what what I find interesting is when we look at that much bigger, much more robust global footprint. That's nothing if you don't have the agility to move stuff around, you don't have the ability to um you know to operate in those multiple countries. That's part of the integration process, isn't it? That's part of understanding which um you visiting multiple factories of theirs, them visiting multiple factories of yours, and understanding where certain projects can fit, where you can quickly move from one location to the other, so you can mitigate these disruptions. How has that integration process gone from an operational point of view, but also from an alignment of cultures and strategy point of view?

Scale, Investment, And Financial Strength

Talent, Design Centers, And BOM Power

Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO 5:53

I like to say that um it works well when you have like 75% common DNA below 50%, it's not gonna work. Yeah, um, if you are 100% the same, you don't learn, you don't progress. So 75% is a pretty good threshold. And um, I have a feeling we hit that target, um we are similar, but we're not the same. Uh we understand each other, uh, but we are very complementary. Um and if I I tend to come back to the customers' expectations all the time, um the uh integration in terms of manufacturing footprint is just a perfect match. Our customers also expect, of course, to be competitive and uh being together. You know, I mean the EMS is very capitalistic as a um as a business. We need to invest uh very significantly in manufacturing equipment. And basically each time a new uh a new customer comes in, we have to invest in manufacturing lines uh dedicated or non-dedicated, but we we do have to invest, and together uh we really have uh now access to very, very competitive equipment, uh equipment cost and uh and to the best of the technology. So that's for all circuits, uh you know, we are in the top 50 worldwide, but we can now together with DBG who is in the top 15, we can really benefit from um having this uh huge uh purchasing power in terms of equipment. Yeah, uh this is absolutely critical. Now, number three, when you're a customer, you expect also to have uh supplier and EMS that is financially sound. Um we were healthy before um before uh DBG uh came in the picture, but they are also giving us a depth and they are ready to help us grow. So that is a message of confidence we're giving to the suppliers and to the customers that you know you can work with us asking the suppliers to give us good uh good time. Yeah. And uh and the suppliers they can work in confidence with us. There's nothing more dramatic for an OEM to see uh its uh subcontractor, its CMS going down. Resourcing is just a nightmare. So uh I think it's very crucial for us to give them confidence in the in the coming years, the coming decades, I should say. Number four, um, and we were together at the IPC conference, we're talking about talents, we're talking about being attractive uh to the best people. Uh if we want to be successful, we need very good people on the shop floor, manufacturing, but we need good engineers, we need good technicians, we need good salespeople, um, we need good people in finance. We overall, uh at the end of the day, it's all about people. Uh, you can have the best machines if you don't have the right people to rent them, and then you're not gonna be efficient and and competitive. So um I think that's uh that's also uh something that uh that is really contributing to being attractive. I can see that in our latest uh recruitments. The new the new positioning um is really attractive for for the talents. Um last but not least, purchasing um components, it can be uh let's say 75% of the total cost. And um, I think our new uh new size uh also the fact that we have now three design centers, one in France, one in Shenzhen, one in Shanghai, makes very attractive to the component manufacturers if they want to be spec in. Um they can they can really uh you know work with us and for uh and um and we can help them being spected in when we talk to um to our customers and at the design stage. Yeah.

Who’s Quoting And Who’s Winning

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 10:19

Yeah, and that makes you more competitive in terms of the in terms of the bill of materials as well. It gives you more purchasing power. It's interesting when you look at scale, it kind of plays in very in a large number of uh situations within the negotiation. It's being able to buy everything you want competitively, but it's also being at the table to negotiate those deals with those companies that do need you to deliver product for them internationally. When you look at the additional RFQs that you're winning, and you're you're you're seeing a lot more RFQs at the moment. Um are they largely for Asian companies that want to be inside your footprint? And if they want to be inside your footprint, are they looking specifically at your lower cost offerings like Mexico and Tunisia?

Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO 11:09

Well, they are we need two buckets. Um international companies, European, American, um, that are looking at us as um kind of ideal uh partner because we are not we're not like the very, very large uh EMS, which are sometimes even larger than them, which can be scary. Um and we have the sufficient size to be able to support them worldwide. So the uh let's say the first big traction is with these international companies uh that all of a sudden are seeing us not just as a local player but international player, and and this is where we are not only quoting but winning. Um and then there is the uh the second bucket made of uh let's say Chinese companies and this takes a bit more time for them. We are doing a lot of quotes right now, uh, but they also have to learn how to work with Western companies when they go outside of China. They're used to let's say to do business in a in a certain way, and they have to accept that uh okay, it's could be a leash.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 12:31

Some things are different, yeah.

Where Growth And Capex Go Next

Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO 12:33

And even um even if you have gains, uh if you do some near shoring, you may also have some extra cost compared to doing everything locally uh in China or in surrounding countries. So they have to accept this extra cost to have at the end maybe a better selling price because they have lower duty. So it's a process. Let's remember the deal just in June.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 13:00

Where do you look to maybe extend the footprint you have? Is it perhaps more manufacturing in the Americas? Is it perhaps extending your um your facilities in uh in Tunisia where you do have maybe low class low cost close to Europe? What's the what's the thinking there? And beyond that, you know, obviously India and Vietnam and places like that are very attractive for for um for DBG to be investing in.

Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO 13:30

Um well if we start with DBG, there's indeed some flexhump right now to open a new uh a new country. It's too early to say. Um it's still in the making, uh, but it's quite advanced in terms of thinking, another location in Asia. Uh as far as all circuits concerned, uh there are uh let's say two different uh two different ways to look at it in EMEA. We have uh we have enough square meters, uh and the emphasis will be on modernizing uh the equipment to stay uh at the uh uh at the top of the uh state of the art in terms of uh manufacturing uh capabilities. So benefiting from what I said the uh very attractive prices for equipment. At the end, uh what we are touched upon is the cost per components placed. So if we reduce the um cost of equipment, that has a direct impact. Um so we would uh certainly uh look at modernizing our plans in EMEA, where we uh we are looking at potentially expanding is in North America if the wave of RFQs that we see now materialize uh materializes into a significant world, we are ready to invest. So but investments will happen in Tunisia, uh in Mexico, but certainly uh we continue to invest in France as we uh remain uh competitive. It's like a bicycle, if you don't panel.

Automation Lessons Across Plants

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 15:09

Yeah, you stop and you fall off. Right, and that's never a good thing. I think what's fascinating when I look at the whole thing is the uh the level of automation and the level of technology you have, for example, at the MSL plant. Was that important when DBG looked at you? And is that level of best practice automation something that you're able to bring to the group from an operational standpoint?

Best Practices And Closing Thanks

Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO 15:33

Well, MSL is certainly the uh most uh advanced, most automated plant in France. Um, I am maybe you've seen more of the nice done uh that I've seen, but one of probably the most uh most advanced in Europe. Uh you go to Asia and uh it sets some kind of different standard. Um and it's good because um I started working uh in Japan and learning the TPS, the TODA production system, and something you learn is uh you have to do better than yesterday and not as good as tomorrow. Um continuous improvement. Yeah, so it's actually very, very good to think that even our best plant can still make a lot of progress. Yeah, and and we will, and we will. Uh the level of automation that uh DBG is achieving because they also have a different model, a lot of the um components are consigned, so they are really setting the value add and value add only. So there's a huge emphasis on saving every penny you can value add. And uh saving can be through automation, and when you replace Chinese labor by uh automatic equipment, the bar is pretty high to get a return on investment. Yeah, we've been able to achieve this in a large scale in China in general, DBG in particular. Um, so we've had recently a trip where we took all our plant managers to China, uh, and it's been uh enlightening, very uh, very interesting. Uh yeah, uh I think there's a lot that we can learn from one another. We have a bigger experience in automotive, for example, than uh our partner, but I would say uh they've been able to achieve a level of automation that um I think is yeah setting the bar even higher. And uh certainly rumble.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 17:48

Yeah, no, it's exciting and exciting times ahead, and bringing those best practices together, bringing those footprints together is what is what makes the uh the the new business greater than the uh the sum of the previous part. So hugely valuable. Stefan, thanks so much for your time. Thanks for talking to me. Um look forward to seeing you in person in the new year and and chatting further. Thanks very much.

Stephane Klajzyngier, ALL Circuits' Deputy CEO 18:11

Thank you. Thank you, Phil.